Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]


Not really, it's worth exactly 1 grosz = 0.01 PLN. But it doesn't make any difference. You cannot even buy a box of matches for that. And as far as I know, they are no longer exchanged to the current złotys.


Exactly. It's value as an antic item is higher than as a money.

UK, Ireland / Polsat or NC+ in England? Subtitles. [14]

Do you expect Polish TV to broadcast English subtitles?

It says the feature is not available because it is not available. It's not a DVD. For some movies and programmes you can enable Polish subtitles, designated basically for the deaf people. If it is not working through a TV function, you can also try the page 777 in the teletext.

Law / Old Polish money banknotes - what's their value today? [415]

It's worth 10 current groszes, that means 0.1 PLN.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

A month ago PiS was apparentlty pro-American. Now it turns out they are, basically, anti-American. Or in fact - anti-everyone, but moving towards typically Russian way of ruling the country (although they used to be anti-Russian). They say that others are hypocritical, but they are most hypocritical on their own...

Work / Choice of Poland's OFE ( Open Pension Funds ) [30]

It's not possible. You must retire first.

Also in case you die before getting retired, then the money is either paid out in cash to your heirs, or, if you are married, 50% goes to the OFE of your wife/husband and 50% is paid out in cash.

Work / Choice of Poland's OFE ( Open Pension Funds ) [30]

If you had money in OFE, it has been transferred to ZUS in 2014. Unless you signed a paper between April and July 2014 that you want 15% of your OFE pension to stay there.

As far as I know, it's impossible to withdraw this money.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Before the parliamentary elections, the exchange rate was about 4,20 PLN/EUR. Shortly after the victory of PiS - it jumped to 4,30. With the time reaching even something like 4,40. Now it jumped to almost 4,50...

While in April, for a short time, it was even something like 4,00 PLN. And around 4,20 was a typical exchange rate all the time.

Life / Living like a local in Poland - What does it even mean? [30]


What can be difficult in doing shopping in a supermarket? You don't even have to talk to the person at the cash register... Some supermarket chains employ even deaf people for that job.

Life / Living like a local in Poland - What does it even mean? [30]

What was the original question?


What do you mean about living like a local? Just live like a local, live like everyone, I don't know how to explain that.


What do you wanna learn?


Nothing.

Life / Living like a local in Poland - What does it even mean? [30]

But what is wrong in buying groceries in Biedronka? You earn above average, as for the Polish standards, so you can do shopping like everyone, maybe buying products of a better quality (which can be done in Biedronka too), and spent the remaining money for other things or save it...

There is nothing bad in shopping in Biedronka, as well as there is nothing bad in buying goods in Lidl, in Tesco or in a local private-owned grocery store. Or buying fruit and vegetables on a local market.

Travel / How to go to Frankfurt from Poland? [16]

No, I like planning connections by public transport :)

Travel / How to go to Frankfurt from Poland? [16]

There is a train from Dresden to Wrocław, the connection had been cancelled for some time but it was restored in December.

The best is to look for German tickets to Görlitz (the last station before the border) and a Polish ticket from Zgorzelec (the first station after the border). Görlitz and Zgorzelec is in fact a single town located on both sides of the border, crossing the border on this route is free of charge.

Then you will most probably need two separate tickets from Zgorzelec to Wrocław and from Wrocław to Katowice, because these connection are operated by different companies (Zgorzelec-Wrocław - Koleje Dolnośląskie, Wrocław-Katowice - PKP Intercity), and in Poland it's not like in Germany, where you can buy a single railway ticket for the whole route, in the DB tarif (or in the tarif of a given Verkehrsverbund), independent of the companies that operate the trains. If you are lucky, and buy a ticket a lot in advance, you may be able to catch one for 19 euro for the whole German section.

There is also a special offer for that train, with which for 33 euro you buy a ticket from Dresden to Wrocław valid for 14 days (trilex.de/de/dresden-wroclaw-spezial/). It may be a good option if you plan to return within these 14 days, and if you manage to buy a ticket from Frankfurt to Dresden for much a lower price than from Frankfurt to Görlitz. You must just use the search engine of the Deutsche Bahn (use the "Sparpreis-Finder" feature) and check the days you are interested in. If you depart from Poland to Germany, the ticket offer is much better, but unfortunately it's not valid when you start in Germany.

There are also connections through Görlitz/Zgorzelec where you have to change trains two or three times between Wrocław and Dresden (once in Görlitz, once in Poland, and sometimes once somewhere else in Germany). For them this offer for 33 euro is also valid.

You can also check the connections through Berlin, it's a longer way, but they might be cheaper. There is no direct train from Berlin to Katowice, and neither to Wrocław (there is a bus operated by the German railway though), but I believe that you can easily change trains in Poznań, Kutno or Warsaw.

You can also check the bus connection. They are likely to be cheaper than by train, although probably less comfortable. There is a bus of the PolskiBus company from Berlin to Katowice, and you can for sure get to Berlin from Frankfurt cheaply using one of the German bus companies (like Flixbus, Postbus, BerlinLinenBus etc.). A few days ago I made a journey from Karlsruhe to £ódź by the BerlinLinienBus and PolskiBus buses with a change in Berlin and it was really comfortable, although I was lucky that I had double seats in both buses. I know, however, that there is no cheap buses through the southern section of the Polish-German border, the only option is through Berlin, unless you combine a bus and a train connection (like a bus to Dresden, and then a train to Poland).

Websites... (in English versions)
- the German railway (Deutsche Bahn): bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml (use the "Saver fare finder" to find cheap tickets from Frankfurt to Dresden or Görlitz)

- the special offer for the train connection Dresden-Wrocław, unfortunately only in German (or in Czech): trilex.de/de/dresden-wroclaw-spezial/ (a ticket valid for 14 days allowing any number of journeys costs 33 euro, according to what they write there, it can be bought from the train staff)

- the Polish railway (PKP Intercity): intercity.pl/en/ (for the train connection from Wrocław to Katowice)
- the Polish local railway from the area of Wrocław (Koleje Dolnośląskie): kolejedolnoslaskie.eu/en (for the train connection from Zgorzelec to Wrocław)

Generally to find the train connection (but not the ticket prices, for that you need the links above), you can use either the search engine of the Deutsche Bahn (so the German one), or one of these Polish ones:

rozklad.sitkol.pl/bin/query.exe/en
rozklad-pkp.pl/en
All three of them are able to find the trains in both Poland in Germany.

For the trains from Frankfurt to Dresden or Görlitz and from Wrocław to Katowice you should buy the tickets possibly early (they get more expensive with time), while for the train from Dresden or Zgorzelec to Wrocław it doesn't matter, the price is constant.

If you have to buy tickets for a domestic connection, by long distance trains (of Deutsche Bahn or PKP Intercity), which involves train changing:
- in Deutsche Bahn (in Germany) it's not a problem to buy them online
- in PKP Intercity (in Poland) you have to either buy online separate tickets for each train, which is normally more expensive than a single ticket for the whole journey, or buy a single ticket for the whole journey at the counter in Poland; but since you are not in Poland now, you will be able to do the second one only on the day of the journey, and buying the ticket for a long-distance train in advance makes it cheaper, so for you the better option is probably to buy two separate tickets

From the German railway, you can also buy a single ticket for the whole journey from Frankfurt to Katowice, but it will be most probably much more expensive.

For bus connections, the websites that you should check are:
- long-distance buses in Germany: busradar.com/
- PolskiBus company for cheap bus connections from Germany to Poland: polskibus.com/en/index.htm

The WizzAir company has also cheap plane connections from Frankfurt to Katowice, you should check them too. But remember that they are from another airport in Frankfurt, not from the main one, but from the Frankfurt-Hahn. For February it finds a connection for 15 euro, so it's really good option (even though you have to pay something extra for the registered luggage).

Another needed website, if you need to travel between airports or between the airport and the train station in Frankfurt, is:
rmv.de/en/ - the Verkehrsverbund (public transport union) for Frankfurt, you will find there all the local public transport connections.

An example for looking for a train connection:

You enter for example the Deutsche Bahn website: bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml - you enter the day for which you need the connection and the relation (Frankfurt-Katowice, just to look for the possible connection to look for cheap tickets). I understand that you mean, all the time, the Frankfurt am Main, which is a big city with a huge international airport, not Frankfurt an der Oder at the German-Polish border, from the second Frankfurt it would be much easier. So you select Frankfurt(Main), not Frankfurt(Oder). Let it be for 18th January, after 12:00:



It finds a few connections, for some of which it cannot sell tickets at all (as a whole connection) - through Berlin, through Dresden and using a direct train from... Vienna (Wien):





The connection through Vienna will be definitely expensive and complicated if you want to save money, because it's an international one through... 4 countries (you would have to go through Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland), I think it's not a good idea to take it into account (although it seems to be equally fast).

What is more, it seems that the connection through Berlin might be faster than the one through Dresden (although it's the longer way)!

With the connection through Berlin it is so, that you can buy a single ticket for the whole connection in this case (for this day and this time) for 93,50 euro, but that's expensive and it's possible to save money really easily. The first option is to buy separate tickets from Frankfurt to Berlin, from Berlin to Poznań, and a ticket from Poznań to Katowice.

Let's check. We open the Deutsche Bahn website again, but now we select the "Saver fare finder". We choose the same day, and a train relation from Frankfurt to Berlin. You can also select Frankfurt(M)Flughafen, which is the station at the airport, but you should check if the ticket from the main station in Frankfurt isn't accidentally much cheaper than one from the airport - the local public transport connection from the airport to the main train station is probably quite cheap. First let's check from the main station (Hbf, it states for Hauptbahnhof, which means main train station):





You can see that dependent on the time, the prices are different (and begin from 29 euro). You need a connection which fits to the arrival of your plane and allows to travel further to Poland without excessive waiting for a train change at the station in Berlin or in Poznań. It might be so that you need to choose a train which costs 43 euro, or even 95 euro, but then (dependent on the price that is available for a train that fits you) it might become a good idea to buy a single ticket for the whole journey (the one for 93,50 euro), or to choose a bus connection. If you haven't bought a plane ticket from India yet, you can also check other days (it's usually cheaper in the middle of a week). Of course, if your plane from India doesn't get much more expensive then.

Let's check connections from the Frankfurt-Flughafen (Frankfurt-Airport) station. For me, for the same day, it finds connections, which are mostly for the same prices, but they include a train from the airport to the main station in Frankfurt (and then a change to the train to Berlin). If it's the case, it's worth to do it in such a way. If the ticket with a connection from the airport is, say, 10 euro more expensive, then... Let's check the connections from the airport to the main station in Frankfurt :-)

We enter the webpage: rmv.de/en/ and put the connection from Frankfurt Flughafen to Frankfurt Hauptbahnof (the search engines usually work so that it's necessary to put the station name in the language of the country the station is located in):





It seems that it takes about 20 minutes by an S-Bahn train and it costs 4,55 euro.

Ok, let's check the trains from Berlin to Poznań. In the same way as before from Frankfurt to Berlin, the difference is that it's necessary to select a special option for international trains. And it seems that the ticket costs 19 or 29 euro. It's possible also to check a ticket price from Berlin to Katowice, bought from the German railway. Than it is 43,50 or 53,50 euro.

So, if you are lucky, you will get a ticket from Frankfurt airport to Poznań for that day for 48 euro. Now let's check the tickets from Poznań to Katowice. Also 18th January. The webpage: intercity.pl/en/ - connection from Poznań Główny (Główny means in Polish "main", for the main station) to Katowice:



And:



It doesn't show the prices, because when I am writing this post, they have a pause for maintenance, like every day in the night hours :-) Notmally it would show the price at all the direct trains (so not at the third one). To go it around, we can check at the rozklad.sitkol.pl page, that the distance for this connection is 343 km, and from a price list at the company webpage, we can read, that with the lowest possible discount for an early purchase of a ticket the price for a distance between 341 and 360 km is 44,80 zł. And this price would most probably show up in the search engine. 44,80 zł is something slightly above 10 euro (1 euro for the recent exchange rates is something like 4,30 zł, unless it fell and it is about 4,20 zł now).

Together it would be something around 60 euro, which is still much less than 90 euro.

There is also another, more "sneaky" way. To buy a German ticket to the last station before the border, which is, in this case, Frankfurt an der Oder (so you would need, basically, a ticket from Frankfurt to Frankfurt - I mean, to the other Frankfurt), and a second one from Zebrzydowice (the first station after the border) to Poznań - a Polish one. It's not really legal, you should have a ticket for the section between Frankfurt(Oder) and Zebrzydowice too, but as far as I know, the tickets are almost never checked on this section, since the train staff gets changed in Frankfurt(Oder), and the Polish train staff is not allowed to check tickets in Germany. They can do it after crossing the border, but then you should go to them and say that you want to extend your ticket from Zebrzydowice so that it's valid from the border (the virtual "station" Zebrzydowice(Gr), which doesn't exist in the reality, but it's possible to sell a ticket from the country border - it's not possible to do buy it online though). You can do it for free since it's within the same price list kilometer range. If you want to be perfectly legal, you can also buy at any train station ticket counter in Germany a ticket from Frankfurt(Oder) to Frankfurt(Oder)(Gr) (the German side of the border, also a "virtual" station), which costs something like 5 euro. If you like adrenaline and you are not afraid of a need for speaking foreign languages that you don't know, you can try this option out, unless it is more expensive than the previous one (it may happen so) :-)

The other option is the connection through Dresden. Which can be checked in the same way as above. But check the prices from Frankfurt to both Dresden and Görlitz. In this case it's perfectly legal to cross the border (travel on the section from Görlitz to Zgorzelec) for free, it's agreed by the railway managements of both countries that it's free at this border point. You will not find the train from Zgorzelec to Wrocław at the PKP Intercity webpage since it's a different company.

If you have some questions, ask. Sorry that I flooded you with information, but I couldn't stop myself from that, I also like railway :-) I wish you good travel.

Language / Dziadzia / Babcia - help me with spelling/pronunciation [81]

And "Dziadzia" too. "Dziadzia" is not so common, though. "Babcia" is a normal word, while "dziadzia" is a diminutive used by small children only, and the proper word is "dziadek".

Law / I have an Israeli Driving License. What do I have to do to get a Polish driving license? [19]

bip.ump.pl/?show_cat=0zxmn9n0

In Polish, but:
1. Israel belongs to the countries which signed the Vienna Road Traffic Convention, therefore you can simply exchange your driving license to the Polish one. In case of countries which haven't singed it, like the US (and, for sure, the countries using American-style road signs), it's also necessary to pass the theoretical part of the Polish driving license exam.

2. You need to go to the "Wydział Komunikacji", "Wydział Praw Jazdy" or a similar institution in your "powiat" office (starostwo powiatowe), or, in case of bigger cities, which are a "powiat" on their own, in the municipal office. In the place where you are registered that you live there.

3. You need the following documents:
a) filled-in application form (available in the office); as far as I know, it's in a special format, so you need an original one taken from the office

b) a photo fulfilling special requirements - the best is just to go to a photographer and tell him that you need a photo for a driving license, he will know how to take it (it's the same type of photo as for identity cards in 2014 and before)

c) a xerox copy of the original driving license and its translation made by a translator authorised for official translators (offices of such translators are often available in the "wydział komunikacji" buildings)

d) xerox copy of your "karta pobytu" (when you are a Polish citizen then you probably have a Polish identity card or passport, it should be OK)

e) only if the validity of your original driving license is not time-limited - you need a medical statement; you get it from a "medycyna pracy" doctor, you have to pay for it not more than 200 PLN

f) for the exchange of the driving license you have too pay 100,50 PLN

With your original Israeli driving license you can drive within 6 months after beginning your stay in Poland. Unless its validity ends earlier.

You are talking about a C category license. Remember that to work as a lorry driver in Poland you need some additional papers (which are quite expensive to get, and you need to pass some extra exams), a driving license is enough only if you have just a private car for your own use.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]

With Guten Tag it's interesting since in Polish it's not "Dobrego dnia", but "Dzień dobry" :)

But with "I wish" in case of "dobrej zabawy" - it's exactly as Polonius is telling.

And with "Smacznego", "Wesołych Świąt", "Wszystkiego Najlepszego" itd. it's exactly the same. You can add "Życzę..." ("I wish you...") before that and it will become simple and easy. "Życzę" demands the Dopełniacz. "100 lat" is here an exception. That confirms the rule. Do you say so (about an exception) in English? :) Anyway, you say "Sto lat", not "(Życzę ci) Stu lat", although the second one is more logical.


Never. If so, then "Gratulacje" (like "Congratulations"), but you tell it to someone who has won something, succeeded in something etc. Not for the birthday.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]

I would say just "zabawne". Who always uses full sentences in such talks?

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]


It depends on you. Sometimes by doing such literal translations, it might be easier to remember the specific phrase, especially when it still makes some sense, but sounds very funny in your language.

But it's just so that there are some words in one language which don't have equivalents in other languages and must be either explained in a descriptive way, or have some equivalents in form of commonly used phrases.

Try to translate the word "fun" to Polish. You may try to say "zabawa", "przyjemność", but it will be quite far away from the meaning of "fun". But to translate "to have fun" as "dobrze się bawić" (literally "to play well", which seems to sound nonsense in English) is much more accurate.

Going further:
to play - bawić się, grać (the last one in terms of playing a game)
to have fun - dobrze się bawić
bawić się - to play, to have fun (you usually say "dobrze się bawić")

Or the word "feature". It can be translated to Polish as "cecha", but the meaning of the word "cecha" is much narrower. "Feature" in English can mean also a function of a program or a device, and, I think, also other things, which aren't covered by Polish "cecha". As a result it happens that some people in Poland happen to say "ficzer" (pronounciation of "feature" spelled in a Polish way) - when they think about "feature" in the English language sense, not necessarily as "cecha", which is sometimes difficult to translate to Polish.

And there is many such examples. It's usually better to feel the meaning of the word than to know the exact translation. The exact translations are (almost) always inaccurate.

But to be able to do this you need to have some, at least small, knowledge of the language, to be able at least to try to understand anything. So at the beginning of the language learning there is no choice but to learn the word translations.

Food / Why Poles not like rice? [81]

Because kasza tastes better, and comes in a lot of different versions :)

But you will definitely find people who prefer rice, potatoes or nuddles to kasza. There is no rule.

I have no idea why kasza is not popular in the western Europe :)

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]

Transliteration? To what alphabet? I can do it to cyrylic, but I don't think it's what you expect :)

Pronounciation from the point of view of English is something like: mah nah sob-yeah.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]

Buźka - literally small face/small mouth (diminutive from buzia), but yes, usually it means a kiss. Maybe a more popular word (for a kiss, with the same origin) is buziak, as in the post before. Pocałunek sounds too official for a text message :)

Law / Opening a Polish Bank Account by a foreigner in Poland. Recommendations. [299]

Opening an account in mostly online banks, like mBank, is much faster. You fill in a form on their website, a courier comes to your home with a contract, you sign it and that's all. In their points in the city it's the same, also quite fast.

In mBank they do not have an English interface though.

Language / What computer keyboards are in use in Poland? [34]

Is it true that there existed layouts which were lacking of the uppercase Polish-specific letters - at least of those which theoretically don't exist in uppercase (they don't appear at the beginning of any word - like Ę, Ą) ? I have seen texts where in the parts written in uppercase the Polish signs were lowercase.

Language / What computer keyboards are in use in Poland? [34]


It used to be popular in the times of typewriters. My theory for this (I think I have read it somewhere, but I am not sure about that) is that they were most frequently imported from Germany, and the "214" layout is just adaptation of the German keyboard layout for the Polish alphabet. To convert a German typewriter to the Polish language, it was enough to exchange the fonts (physically, the metal casts, I am not sure if font is the proper English word here) with umlauts into ones with Polish-specific letters.

There was also probably a lot of cases of typewriters used in German offices before the WW2 (or during the WW2 in the most of the area of the current Poland, which was then occupated by Germany), which turned out to be located in Poland and to be used in Polish offices after the war. In this case, it was also the easiest just to exchange some fonts and descriptions on the keys.

When someone gets used to one keyboard layout, he is able to type without looking at the keyboard, without looking for the key needed. And it's not easy for him to switch to another one. I am now in Germany and when I have to use a public computer, I switch to the QWERTY layout if only I am able to. Once I wasn't able to (it's also rather impossible when you need to type in German, because you don't have access to the German signs then) and it was really annoying. All the time I was putting Z instead of Y and vice versa, not to mention the punctuation characters, which are also located in different places.

Language / What computer keyboards are in use in Poland? [34]

Is it in Windows difficult? Ctrl+Shift on the keybard, or you can set another shortcut if you want to.

Classifieds / Used computers/electronics market in Tri-City, Poland. [10]

If you can find something from your area, come for the product and see it, it's not such a problem.

I can say that in £ódź there used to be an electronics, as well as computer market, but now, as far as I know, they don't exist any more.

I have been to the computer market there once something like 10 years ago and finally I bought the CPU for an old PC I needed through Allegro. There was something like a few sellers, at least with hardware (it was long time ago, I do not remember it well), and the whole market took something like 2 rooms of a school building. And the prices were considerably higher than on the net.

Classifieds / Used computers/electronics market in Tri-City, Poland. [10]

Look for them at:
allegro.pl
olx.pl
gumtree.pl

Computers and electronics markets are already the past these days.

A big one is in Warsaw: gieldawolumen.pl - but it has also seen its better days.

Now the trade has moved online.

History / Royal Family still in Poland? [79]


Rather not, although it's rather difficult to say it definitely was or it definitely wasn't.

It was introduced illegally, breaking the previous constitution. But it was used by the Polish government in exile, which existed until 1990, and from which the first Polish non-communist government symbolically took over the authority.

But ok, there were three constitutions for which we can definitely agree they were legal.

History / Royal Family still in Poland? [79]


Four, including the current one.

1. The March Constitution (1921-1935, used also, of course, with some changes, by the communist authorities after the World War 2, which didn't acknowledge the April Constitution as a legally valid since it was a result of the Piłsudski's coup)

2. The April Constitution (1935-1939)
3. The Constitution of PRL (1952-1997, it was, of course, changed in 1989, and later in 1992 to enable the change of the political system)
4. The current constitution (from 1997)

Law / Getting a Polish drivers license / Poland's residence permit (how long it might take to get?) [25]

The theory course is no longer obligatory, I think, from the beginning of this year.

I think that if your Canadian driving license is no longer valid, you have to do here everything from the beginning. I don't know what the regulations in Canada are, but if you can get there just a new document, you should do so. Then, I am not sure, but probably you will have to pass the theory part of the exam in Poland to exchange the Canadian license to a Polish one (it concerns the countries that didn't sign the Vienna convention on road traffic, and I think Canada belongs to the countries which didn't, it's because you have to know the European road traffic regulations and road signs, even though in terms of the regulations, the difference between 2 European countries might be bigger than between one of them and Canada, like in Poland a road intersection cancels a speed limit, and in the most of the Western-European countries it doesn't).

In such a situation making a Polish license from scratch seems not to be much more difficult, but much more expensive. About 1200 PLN - a course (in smaller driving schools you may try to negotiate with them, maybe they will unofficially shorten the practical course since you already can drive and charge you less, just for the preparation to the exam - but you must find one where they speak English). Then, I think, less than 200 PLN (I am not sure) for issuing the document.

Life / Why do Poles talk so badly about Poland? [25]

Programming (and generally everything connected with computers) is one of the few industries in Poland in which you can earn really a lot and it's easy to find a job. Other ones are physical works of different type (construction site workers, electricians, plumbers etc. - many of them emigrated after Poland joined the EU and there is to little of them on the market now) and the medicine. It's also an industry in which you don't really need studies.

Expenses are indeed low, but an average Pole earns yet less. Or works much more, then it's true that the income is not so low.


This is also true.